Another of Mary
Johnston’s dazzling novels of fighting,
romance, and adventure—this time on the Spanish Main
Sir Mortimer Ferne is a privateer—a legalized pirate—licensed by Queen
Elizabeth I to prey on enemy ships. All is going well until
Sir Mortimer becomes the victim of an ingenious, but malicious, trick
in which he is made out to be a traitor. As a result, he
loses everything—his status in court, his friends, his fortune, and
worst of all, his honor. This launches him on a quest to gain
it all back; but there are forces that do not want him to succeed in
that task. In the process of Sir Mortimer’s struggle, we
become witnesses to Sir Francis Drake’s capture of Cartagena, and
Robert Dudley’s expedition to Flushing, both in 1585.
It is a story of English sea-dogs on the Spanish Main; but it is done
with Mary Johnston’s incredible eye for historical detail, and her gift
for telling a rollicking good tale.
Sir Mortimer
was Johnston’s third book to “go gold.” It was the fifth
bestselling book of 1905, following the previous successes of Audrey (No. 5 in
1902) and To Have and
to Hold (No. 1 in 1900).